The Slater Technology Fund has provided $250,000 in seed funding to help a startup company based on cryogenic imaging research done at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Engineering.
Vitrimark Inc., co-founded by Arijit Bose, a URI professor of chemical engineering, is identifying new biomarkers – measurable characteristics that can be used as indicators of normal or unhealthy biological processes, or of responses to pharmaceutical treatment – for use in the drug development process.
“This is an excellent example of our strategy of backing compelling science and scientists at research universities in the region and catalyzing the creation of startup companies,” said Richard G. Horan, managing director of the Slater Technology Fund.
“With the help of Slater, we have been able to begin the critical process of demonstrating the viability of our technology,” said Bose, who is Vitrimark’s chief technology officer. “We are encouraged by our preliminary findings, and are looking forward to accelerating our efforts to bring this innovative new technology to market.”
Horan said Bose “is the kind of innovator that Slater is keen to back,” adding: “He is a well-credentialed scientist and professor at URI, and he’s been committed to this field of research for quite some time. He has had a good eye for the market opportunity.”
Biomarkers can help drug companies to identify patient populations in which a treatment is likely to succeed or to quickly determine whether a drug is successful. The market for such products is expected to more than double from $427 million in 2006 to more than $1 billion in 2010, the Slater Fund said.
Vitrimark uses nanoscale cryoimaging (ultramicroscopic imaging at very low temperatures) of biofluids such as blood serum to identify “ultrastructural” biomarkers, in a patent-pending technology the company says may allow earlier detection of cellular changes.
The company is focusing on markers related to prostate cancer, working in cooperation with Tufts University and the laboratories at URI. It has hired Ryaz B. Mahammad, a former research assistant professor at URI’s College of Pharmacy, to oversee its research operations.
The Slater Fund was introduced to Vitrimark through its “proactive process of networking with researchers in the universities here in Rhode Island,” Horan said.
The seed funding evolved over a couple of years of dialogue, Horan said. The Slater Fund followed Bose’s research and began discussing the formation of a company to commercialize the technology. “The rest is history,” Horan said. (Vitrimark was a semifinalist in the 2007 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition.)
“We believe Vitrimark has a unique technology with enormous potential for the drug development market,” Horan said. The whole field of advanced technology platforms to support drug discovery, “is a very exciting and emerging area,” he added, in which “Rhode Island can accomplish a lot, because of the scientists and technologists that are working in research labs here.”
Vitrimark Inc. is leveraging its expertise in nanoscale cryoimaging to identify structural markers for use in the drug development process. To learn more, visit www.vitri-mark.com.
The Slater Technology Fund, established in 1997 by then-Gov. Lincoln Almond and the R.I. General Assembly, provides seed capital to companies committed to building technology-based businesses in Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.slaterfund.com.
